Bandolero! (1969)

The Bishop gang tries to hold up the bank in Valverde, but things don’t go quite as planned. Next thing you know, gang leader Dee Bishop (Dean Martin) and four of his cohorts are in jailed and have a date with the hangman’s noose.

In San Antone, Mace Bishop (James Stewart) overhears a hangman talking about his upcoming engagement in Valverde. So he camps with the man, learns the correct way to conduct a hanging, then steals his clothes and heads off to Valverde to help his brother escape.

And so begins their flight to Mexico, with the kidnapped wife (Raquel Welch as Maria Stoner) of a rancher killed in the bank holdup along as a hostage. Hot on their trail, of course, is a posse from Valverde.

The gang fights off that posse once, but Sheriff Judy Johnson (George Kennedy) and Deputy Roscoe Bookbinder (Andrew Prine) aren’t likely to give up easily. They’ve been embarrassed in their own town. And the Bishop gang has two other things Johnson wants very badly – Maria Stoner and $10,000 Mace Bishop stole at the end of his stint as a pretend hangman.

South of the border, both gang and posse face a new danger: Bandits – or bandoleros – who control the country through which they’re traveling.

Review:

The clever opening – with James Stewart’s character posing as a hangman who takes his job very, very seriously – sets the stage for a highly entertaining Western.

Of course, Raquel Welch makes for very pretty window dressing, but the most implausible part of the film might be the way she eventually falls for Dee Bishop – the same man whose gang caused the death of her husband and put her life in danger by kidnapping her after their escape.

Central to the film is the relationship between Dee and Mace Bishop. Mace is the good brother. He fought for “right” in the Civil War. But he can’t stand the thought of giving up on his wayward brother, the only other member of his family to survive that war. He robs the bank with dreams of using the money to buy a ranch for the two of them in Montana.

George Kennedy also has a more interesting that normal part as the sheriff who dotes over his deputy and longs for a life with a woman he’ll never have. And kudos to the filmmakers for avoiding a fairytale ending.

Directed by:
Andrew V. McLaglen

Cast:
James Stewart … Mace Bishop
Dean Martin … Dee Bishop
Raquel Welch … Maria Stoner
George Kennedy … Sheriff July Johnson
Andrew Prine … Deputy Roscoe Bookbinder
Will Greer … Pop Chaney
Clint Ritchie … Babe Jenkins
Denver Pyle … Muncie Carter
Tom Heaton … Joe Chaney
Rudy Diaz … Angel
Sean McClory … Robbie O’Hare
Harry Carey Jr. … Cort Hayjack
Donald “Red” Barry … Jack Hawkins
Guy Raymond … Ossie Grimes (undertaker)
Perry Lopez … Frisco

Runtime: 106 min.

Memorable lines:

Sheriff Johnson, as the Bishop gang is arrested: “If one of them so much as spits, blow his head off.”

Hangman Ossie Grimes,of the Bishop Gang: “Be the first Texans I ever hung. I plan to enjoy it.”

Ozzie Grimes: “There’s nothing worse than a sloppy hanging. Why back in Oklahoma, I once watched them hang a fella five times before it took.”

Mace Bishop, posing as a hangman, explaining why the saloon should be closed during the proceeding: “These men deserve to hang. But they don’t deserve to hang cold sober while a bunch of drunks stand around watchin’.”

Maria Stoner, boasting of her survival skills: “I was a whore at 13, and my family of 12 never went hungry.”

Mace Bishop, posing as the hangman: “I man who’s hung by Ozzie Grimes stays hung.”

Dee Bishop: “Hey, Robby, here’s a momma for you. One boy goes with Quantrill, the other goes with Sherman. One helps burn down a town, the other helps burn down a state. And the one that burned down the town is the one that done in his mamma.”
Mace Bishop: “Sherman was war, Dee. Quantrill was meanness.”

Maria Stoner: “How can two brothers be so different?”
Dee Bishop: “Who, Mace? Oh, he believes in the goodness of his fellow man. He’s never seen it, you understand, but he believes in it. I’ve never seen it either, and I don’t believe in it.”

Dan Bishop to Mace: “I may not be good, Mace, but I sure do know what good’s supposed to be.”

Dee Bishop: “You robbed a bank? You, Mace?”
Mace Bishop: “Well, Dee, the bank was there. And I was there. And there wasn’t much of anyone else there. And it just seemed like the thing to do.”